Witness says loan statements would appear to be falsified

Two statements from a loan account in the name of a company controlled by Mr Denis Foley and Mr John Byrne are a tissue of lies, counsel for the tribunal alleged yesterday.

The financial controller of Guinness & Mahon, Ms Sandra Kells, agreed with counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, that the statements "would appear" to be falsified.

Central Tourist Holdings, of which both Mr Foley and Mr Byrne, a property developer, were directors, received a loan of £70,000 in June 1972 from Guinness & Mahon bank for the refurbishment of the Central Hotel in Ballybunion, Co Kerry. Mr Thomas and Mr William Clifford were also directors of the company.

Until 1982 interest payments were met on the loan while the balance remained at £70,000. However, early that year interest payments ceased and by 1985 the total debt had increased to £135,510.

The debt was cleared in September that year by a withdrawal of £106,863.62 sterling from a Guinness & Mahon Cayman Trust account. The sterling withdrawal, with an Irish pound value of £133,579.32, was lodged to Guinness & Mahon's foreign exchange account. Shortly afterwards, £135,510.65 was withdrawn from the foreign exchange account and credited to Central Tourist Holdings loan account, clearing the debt.

However, a statement indicating that a debt of £135,510.65 was still outstanding from Central Tourist Holdings was produced after the loan had been cleared, though with a new account number. An identical sum of money was credited to a new current account. The procedure was reversed on November 4th, and backdated to October 29th, leaving both the current account and the new loan account with a zero balance.

Ms Kells agreed with Mr Coughlan that "no money was ever lent to anybody and no money was ever recovered from anyone".

"At first sight does it not appear to be falsifying the bank record?" asked Mr Coughlan.

Ms Kells replied: "Yes".

Mr Foley earlier testified that he was unaware that the loan was cleared in 1985 because he was sent statements in 1986 which appeared to show that £149,000 was outstanding. Ms Kells said the balance on these statements should have been zero.

An October 1987 cheque for £42,680 to Guinness & Mahon, which was largely made up of part of the proceeds of the sale of the hotel, was lodged to another offshore account. Mr Foley has testified that he had been under the impression that the cheque, which he and Mr Byrne signed, was supposed to repay the company's debt to the bank.

Earlier, the tribunal heard that payments to Mr Foley from the Ansbacher accounts were channelled through the same accounts as payments to the former taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey.